DCH Coronavirus Update 2-26-21

Vaccine Update

DCH began providing the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 17 to eligible groups. Between then and yesterday afternoon, DCH has provided nearly 22,000 first and second doses. This weekend begins second doses for educators, and all next week DCH will provide the second doses for the mass vaccination effort. By next Saturday evening, we expect to have provided over 28,000 vaccines. That is an average of a little more than 2,500 vaccines per week.

To put that in context, DCH began providing COVID-19 testing on March 16, 2020. As of today, DCH has successfully completed over 79,000 COVID-19 tests. That is an average of about 1,600 tests per week.

We are providing vaccines as fast as we can with the supply available and, as you can see above, we are making good progress. We know there are many more who are eligible but have not been able to get an appointment. Please be patient; every time we get more vaccine, more helpers or canceled appointments, we add times to the system. They are usually filled within an hour, but we are committed to continually adding more as soon as we can, so keep checking.

It is good news that we have been able to vaccinate so many in such a short amount of time. The even better news is shown below. COVID-19 positive inpatient numbers are coming down.

DCH is proud to be part of this effort and hopeful for continued progress. We sincerely appreciate the continued community support, as it will take all of us working together to eliminate the threat of this virus.

COVID-19 Information

To protect patient privacy, DCH has established a minimum threshold of five for reporting numbers of inpatients with laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19.

DCH Health System internal counts as of 3:13 p.m. on 2/26/21:

• 31 inpatients within the DCH system who are positive for COVID-19.
• Five or fewer inpatients who are positive for COVID-19 are being treated in the ICU.
• Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on ventilators.
• Five or fewer who are positive for COVID-19 are on a BiPAP.
• 8,418 (cumulative) unique positives for COVID-19 tests including results from the ED, triage tent and inpatient. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 37,616 (cumulative) unique negatives for COVID-19 at DCH sites.
• 10,178 (cumulative) positive COVID-19 at DCH sites. These individuals are not necessarily in the hospital.
• 69,215 (cumulative) negative tests at DCH sites.
• 2,889 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have been discharged.
• 532 inpatients (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died at DCH. This is not an indication of the cause of death, only that the individuals were positive for COVID-19 at the time of death.
• 278 Tuscaloosa County residents (cumulative) who were positive for COVID-19 have died (per the Alabama Department of Public Health).